Movie: Tár (2022)

 “Tar… What is that movie about? Some sexually predatory artistic genius? She’s an EGOT, for crying out loud, and it’s so punitive. They drag her down so far that after that after a while it sort of turns into a gothic horror film.” Critic, Peter Rainer at the AirTalk 2023 Oscar Preview

Tár - A strange movie with nearly five minutes of credits at the beginning of the film, and a short set of end credits with music that yanks you out of any atmosphere left over from the last scene. Tár is about an egotistical conductor. She’s just so focused on her life,  maximizing her experience and prioritizing her pleasure and her expertise, that she loses sight of other people. Turns out almost everyone in her life dislikes or fears her. Her ego-self has lied to her and convinced her that she’s immune to the consequences of her cruel and inappropriate behavior. Those pesky consequences catch up to her when a scandal involving the suicide of a protégé comes to light. I gotta appreciate the comedy of a conversation  between Tár and her mentor when she asks him about how he would deal with “a student or a colleague misinterpreting your actions” and he immediately jumps to the conclusion that he’s been accused. Once convinced he’s not, he begins listing off conductors who have been accused and there is a list!

Cate Blanchett disappears in this performance: she is Lydia Tár. I was skeptical at the beginning of this, but I fell into it, and into the rabbit hole of the story until the end. The last chapter, so to speak, was rushed, and again the ending was odd. I see why Blanchett was nominated, but I also see why people aren’t raving about this movie. Overall, the story left a lot to be desired. I can’t think of any good reason to see it again. I’m trying to think of Tár in the same vein of Everything Everywhere All At Once, because I gave that movie a lot of credit for being different from traditional storytelling. Both movies use nontraditional techniques. So, with Tár I wonder what questions are still left unanswered. At the end of the movie, I still don’t know who was tormenting Tár throughout the film. Did we start to channel the mental break depicted in Black Swan? Or was what we saw onscreen Tár tormenting herself or paranormal, even? What was the story with the Russian cellist?

Click here to hear the AirTalk 2023 Oscar Preview

I watched this movie on a DVD checked out from my local library. 

Movie: Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018)***

Can You Every Forgive Me? is an enjoyable movie with Melissa McCarthy playing a very believable and funny-by-happenstance woman who finds herself forging letters by famous authors.

All the levels are set at good: Good acting, good production, good writing, etc. Melissa McCarthy and her co-star, Richard E. Grant were both nominated for best actress and supporting actor respectively at the Oscars, Golden Globes and SAG Awards. After finally watching CYEFM?, I am surprised they were nominated because there wasn’t anything great or inspiring about this film. My suspicion is that voting committees were impressed by McCarthy’s non-comedy performance, which was good, but not award worthy.  

I would watch this again and would recommend it, but I don’t think it offers anything spectacular to the cinematic world so I’m giving it three stars***.

Mini rant: Vice, Green Book, I, Tonya, Get Out, Lady Bird, Birdman, Her, American Hustle were all nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. Can You Ever Forgive Me?  gets nominated for Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Drama. What the hell is that about? 

I checked the DVD out from my local library. 

Movie: Manchester By the Sea (2016)****

I went to New York City and spent the majority of the time on a couch in a timeshare. I finally got up one night, a Monday, you know, when the majority of a the theaters are dark, and the only show I was able to catch was Blackbird, a single-set drama starting Michelle Williams and Jeff Bridges. At the time I disliked it, but seeing Manchester By the Sea, gave me a different point of view, and I wish I would have seen the movie before the play. After seeing the film, I look back at the play and can appreciate the intensity of the situation, the set, and most definitely the acting. I see it all in a different light, so to speak: From the harsh tungsten of the office break room to the natural, partly cloudy skies of Massachusetts.

That being said, I enjoyed more than Michelle Williams' acting in Manchester By the Seas. It was a movie with an authentic feel that was well acted and with dialogue that one might confuse with being unscripted.

In it, Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck), a sad case who banished himself to Boston after his own tragedy, learns of his brother's sudden death and returns to his hometown. Not long after. Lee discovers that his brother had willed him to be the legal guardian of his nephew and property, a responsibility he doesn't feel strong enough to take on.

Manchester by the Sea hardly has any music in it. Most of the scenes survived on silence, dialogue and the play between the actors.

Best scene: When Patrick, the nephew, Patrick, finally breaks down and Lee does his best to help him.

This won the 2017 Chocket Award for Best Talkie and I'm giving it Four Stars**** because it is really good and I do want to watch it more than once, but I'm not sure if this is one I'll want to watch over and over again. We'll see how I feel in a year.

Movie: The Big Short (2015)**

The Big Short is an interestingly-styled glance back at recent history.

What happens: The telling of how three different groups/individuals discovered the housing bubble, predicted it would burst, and then find a way to make gains instead of suffer losses. This was based on actual people and events.

There's a lot of fourth-wall-breaking and celebrity-cameo-sidebars to explain technical terminology.

I think some people are still surprised when they see Steve Carell playing a non-comedic role. He obviously knows what he's doing with serious characters, so there shouldn't be any special attention paid just because he's not trying to make you laugh.

Felt like Wolf of Wall Street (2013).

I thought it was interesting, but I don't think I ever have to see it, again. Therefore I give The Big Short**

Oscars:
Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay

Movie: Spotlight (2015)**

Remember... Doubt (2008) or Sleepers (1996)? Well, Spotlight is a different angle from the same story, this one strictly from the press' point of view.

Spotlight told the story of a special investigative team in Boston exposing the scandal of the Catholic Church's (and the system that supports it) knowledge of abusive priests. This story was told well. The production and soundtrack set a somber mood. The script and actors portraying these real people  didn't create caricatures; They're performances had a sense of truth and reality, and the dialogue was moving.  

Best scene: The team finds evidence against the Cardinal and Mike (Mark Ruffalo) gets angry they aren't going to press with it. Mark Ruffalo does a great job in this movie.

Special mention: Librarian montage!

That being said, I don't see this as a Best Picture and I don't really have to ever see it again.  I gave it two stars **, but the doggone movie won the Oscar for Best Picture!

Oscars:
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Best Writing, Original Screenplay

Golden Globes:
Best Motion Picture - Drama
Best Director - Motion Picture
Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

I watched a screener of this movie.

Movie: No Country For Old Men (2007) *****

Holy cow! I can't believe this movie came out in 2007! I remember watching this with friends New Year's Day 2008. Doesn't seem that long ago, but I guess it was. Oh! And it won Best Picture at the Oscars in 2008. That was a fulfilling culmination to a good movie year. Check out these titles!

I watched this movie in it's entirety for the second time tonight and it holds up against time very well. In fact, as with many good movies, upon second viewing, I caught details I missed the first time and can appreciate more of the acting more since I recognize more of the players.

No Country For Old Men is about a sociopathic mercenary set on a mission to kill a man who got himself involved in something way over his head. The sheriff, who is small town, but not in the figurative sense, finds himself on the bloody trail of this mercenary. I'm being rather vague in my description because it's better to go into this movie knowing as little as possible. This is a Coen Brothers movie, so it is off-kilter from your average movie story lines, full of good actors, acting, and interesting dialogue. I am intrigued by how the Coens managed to maintain an atmosphere of calm panic throughout this film. Masterful!

Even if you've never seen this movie, you've probably heard about the character played by Javier Bardem's exceeding creepiness punctuated by a bowl haircut. If you've seen the movie you might remember that his name, Anton Chigurh, is creepy as well. The sheriff, played by Tommy Lee Jones, really reminds of the sheriff in Misery, especially their relationships with their wives. And wouldn't you know, another creep-master, Garret Dillahunt, is in this as well, but playing a somewhat ditzy, but competent deputy. I recently saw him as KD in Hand of God.

I'm giving No Country For Old Men five stars***** because it is a quality movie with great writing, I enjoyed both the first and second viewings, and I'm sure I will watch it again. It's not exactly a favorite, but I think very highly of this movie and it would probably fall on a list of best movies ever if I was writing it.

No Country For Old Men on IMDB

I own this DVD. 

Movie: Mr Turner (2014) **

I wanted to watch this movie with last year's batch of Oscar hopefuls and I finally got it through the library. Not impressed. It was rather vanilla.

Timothy Spall plays the great British artist J. M. W. Turner in this biopic that covers the last 26 years of his life. He wasn't the best of people and only maintained two quality relationships, that between him and his father and also a relationship that developed with a landlady he would visit when he was scouting vistas to paint.

The film was beautifully shot, and at times, some of the panning scenes looked as if they were paintings.
Spall was tranformed in the role with an amazing amount of grunting. I watched the movie with captions on and reading the transcription of his grunts was quite entertaining.

I'm giving this two stars ** because I don't ever want to watch it again, and although I thought the cinematography was pretty good, nothing else stood out. 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2473794/